Relationships between driving style and fuel consumption in highway driving

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between driving style and fuel consumption through on-road assessment in highway driving. In order to find prominent measures in driving style which affect the fuel consumption, 15 younger drivers were asked to drive approximately 36Km of highway, and driving data, including real-time fuel consumption, vehicle speed, gear selection, brake/acceleration pedal usage and steering angle, were collected. The correlation analysis results suggested that the fuel efficiency was significantly affected by the average depth of acceleration pedal in highway driving in which the highest gear was engaged. Another interesting finding in this analysis was that the fuel consumption can be estimated by observing the variations in steering wheel because the standard deviation of steering wheel angle and the fuel consumption were highly correlated. Copyright © 2011 SAE International.